The Table of Time
by OrcaPotter
Summary: Harry stumbles upon something in his seventh year that has the ability to take him anywhere... anywhere in time. A never-before-seen first fic by OrcaPotter.


Author's Note: Believe it or not, Etam Luos was not my first Harry Potter fanfiction story ****

Author's Note: Believe it or not, _Etam Luos_ was not my first Harry Potter fanfiction story. Almost a month before I wrote the first Renee novel, I wrote _Harry Potter and the Table of Time_. I sent the file to a popular author you may know as Eliza Diawana Snape. (If I spelt her name wrong, sorry!). She read this story, tore it apart, and said that it needed a major overhaul. Discouraged, this file was lost. _Etam Luos_ was written a few weeks later, and upon discovering fanfiction.net, was posted. Thanks to my brilliance of printing out this story before the file was lost to me, I have been able to re-type _Harry Potter and the Table of Time_ for it to be finally read by you. All of the grammar/spelling errors have been corrected, thus this is the "revised edition". However, this story is true to the original, and you can decide for yourself whether or not it needed an overhaul. This is also a chance for you to see my humble beginning, and where I have come from in my writing ability. Please enjoy this, as I am truly happy that _Harry Potter and the Table of Time_ has finally been made public.

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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and affiliates. This original story line belongs to Orca, however. 

OrcaPotter's Never Before Seen 1st HP Fanfic

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"Harry Potter and the Table of Time"

First Written July 2000

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Revised Edition

"What's the use of giving us holidays if we have to work through them?" Muttered Ron as he closed his potions textbook in anger.

It was another sunny April day at Hogwarts, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were spending their time in the Gryffindor common room catching up on schoolwork.

"So we don't forget everything in a couple of days!" Said Hermione.

"Like we are going to forget everything in a couple of days!" Shouted Ron.

Harry was not paying attention, both to the argument between Ron and Hermione and his schoolwork. He was daydreaming once again, looking lazily out the window. Hedwig would be coming back soon, hopefully with a letter from his godfather, Sirius Black. It would be nice to spend his holidays with him, but staying at Hogwarts wasn't so bad at all. The summer holidays are what Harry dreads the most, for that's when he has to go back to Privet Drive. Staying with his mean aunt and uncle, along with his cousin Dudley is horrible, for they all hate him because he is a wizard.

Fortunately, the summer holidays were still a few months away.

"Harry, what do _you_ think?"

"Wha? What?" Harry muttered, snapping back to Earth.

"Do you think that we should wait until later today to do the rest of our homework, or if we continued doing it now while it's still light outside?" Ron and Hermione said together.

Harry stared at them.

"Uh, I dunno." Harry uttered.

Both Ron and Hermione glared at him, but Harry got up before they could speak once more.

"I'm going to go get another book from the library, _Potions of this Century_ isn't giving me the information I need for my report." Harry lied.

Feeling quite guilty, but needing fresh air without interruption, he left the Gryffindor common room. Ron and Hermione had continued their heated debate over homework as the portrait of the Fat Lady swung to a close behind Harry. He walked slowly down the stairs, toward the doors outside.

The castle was rather empty, many people were enjoying the weather outside. Harry had almost reached the large doors to the courtyard when he heard a loud crash. Curious, Harry walked toward the direction of the noise. He reached the end of the hall to find a door left ajar. Pushing it open to let himself in, he found Peeves, the poltergeist, smashing glass jars against a wall.

"PEEVES!" Yelled Harry. "I'm going to tell Professor Dumbledore!"

"Me not afraid of Dumbly-dore!" Peeves giggled, and threw another glass jar at Harry. Harry ducked and stumbled back outside.

Thinking for a moment as he got back up, he took a deep breath and yelled loud enough for Peeves to hear. "Oh, hello Mr. Baron! Nice day isn't it?"

Dropping a glass jar in surprise, Peeves dashed through the wall and out of sight. The Bloody Baron was the only one whom Peeves is afraid of.

Laughing silently to himself, Harry turned to leave the room only to hear another noise.

TICK-TICK-TICK

Slowly, Harry stepped further into the room. It was a large storage room, originally full of glass jars before Peeves found himself in there. Now littered with glass pieces, the shelves were nearly bare. Harry continued to follow the ticking sound through a second door leading to a smaller room.

TICK-TICK-TICK

The sound was getting a lot louder. Harry was beginning to become nervous; he usually found unusual things in dark and deserted rooms.

Just as he thought the ticking sound could not get any louder, he bumped into something hard. Startled, Harry grabbed his wand from beneath his robes and said, "_Lumos_!" Instantly, the room was filled from the light at the top of Harry's wand. He found himself staring down at a huge round table. If filled the rest of the room, which had no windows and no other doors.

Harry waved his wand over the table more and found that the table was actually a huge clock. Only, it wasn't like any clock he had ever seen before. It had three hands, like any other clock did, but they had words inscribed on them in gold letters.

"Year, month, and date." Harry read out loud.

With further inspection, he found that at the top of the clock where the number twelve would normally be, was the current year, 1998. The "year" hand was pointed at it. Going clockwise from 1998, were the previous years. Looking around the enormous clock, the years went back in time. The number to the left of 1998 was 382 BC

"This is one old clock!" Muttered Harry to himself, as he looked at the numbers. Looking at the 1998 once more, he saw the twelve months of the year written in smaller gold lettering written side-by-side underneath the year. The "month" hand was pointing to April. The dates were written in even smaller gold lettering underneath that, and the "date" hand was pointing to the fifteenth. Toward the bottom of the clock, on the edge where Harry was standing, was a switch. It read, "PAST" and "FUTURE". It was switched to "PAST".

Harry began to move the switch over to the "FUTURE" position to see what would happen, but stopped when the clock began to _speak_.

"_A long time ago,_

when there was not much to do,

A young wizard was bored,

And being bored he was through.

He sat around one day,

And thought it would be quite fine,

To come up with a tool,

That would take him through time.

The wizard worked hard,

His brain he did rock,

To come up with the idea,

Of making a large clock.

And so I was born,

His boredom did end,

I showed him history,

And we became friends.

He told me to tell you,

When he past away,

How to work my magic,

So that we could play.

So listen carefully,

Here's what to do,

I will tell you quickly,

So that your journey can ensue.

Set my hands,

To the time of your pleasure,

I will then transport you,

Within an accurate measure.

Your journey however,

And do not be sour,

Will not last much longer,

Than approximately one hour.

The people you meet,

During your stay,

Will not see or hear you,

I'm sorry to say.

Yet enjoy your visit,

This is the end of my rhyme,

And I hope you will use me,

This Table of Time!"

Harry was silent as the voice went away. _I can use this to go back into time?_ He thought to himself in wonder.

Looking behind him, he thought that it wouldn't hurt to try it out. It was obviously not a Time-Turner, which if you use one you could drastically change history if you are spotted or do anything.

He thought for what seemed like hours, staring at the table and then behind him again.

"What is there to loose?" He finally said. "But when in time do I want to go?"

Instantly he answered himself. _I can go back in time and see my parents before they died!_ He thought with growing excitement.

He stood on his spot and debated with himself if he actually wanted to do that. Deep down, he missed his parents. He's never going to see them again, and he never saw them alive. After several more minutes, Harry made up his mind.

"I'm going to do it!" He yelled at the table.

He reached over to the hands, but stopped. What date should he set it to? Doing the math in his head, he was born 17 years ago. He was a year old when his parents were murdered. The clock should be set sometime after he was born, but before his first birthday.

"Let's set if for, April 15th, 1981. My first birthday was July 31st, 1981. So, that should be good." He muttered to himself.

Replacing the switch to the "PAST" position, he had to climb on top of the table to reach the hands. He moved the "Year" hand to the right, over to 1981. Next, he grabbed the "Month" hand and moved it to "April" underneath 1981. Finally, just as Harry moved the "Date" hand to the number fifteen under "April", a bright light flashed all around him.

When the light died, he found himself still standing on the Table of Time and still in the same room.

"Did it work?" He whispered. Harry walked slowly out of the room, out into the storage room where, when he left it, had been covered in shattered glass. However, the room was spotless, and the shelves were filled to the brim with glass jars. He walked out of the storage room into the hall. Before he realized it, two people were walking toward him.

"Come with me, Hagrid, I need help getting some storage jars."

It was Professor Dumbledore, closely followed by Hagrid, the groundskeeper.

"I'm sorry Professor!" Harry blurted out. "I just ran into Peeves and-"

"In here, Hagrid," Said Professor Dumbledore. He did not seem to see Harry. Hagrid followed him, and did not look at Harry either.

"Wait a minute!" Harry said to himself. "The Table of Time must have worked, it said that no one would see or hear me." He walked back into the storage room where Professor Dumbledore was handing some storage jars to Hagrid. Hagrid looked over his shoulder and Harry ducked behind a box before he remembered no one could see him again. Hagrid looked back at Dumbledore and whispered,

"So, how are the Potters?"

Professor Dumbledore looked at him and frowned.

"They recently moved to Godric's Hollow, I believe they are safe there for the time being." He said. While handing Hagrid another jar, his smile appeared again. "I hear young Harry is showing his father's talent in magic."

They continued their conversation while it dawned on Harry that he only had an hour to find his parents before he would be transported back in time. Remembering once again that no one could see or hear him, Harry ran out of the room.

Thinking as he ran out of the castle, he did not know where Godric's Hollow was. Not realizing where he was running, he soon found himself on the streets of Hogsmeade. Harry still did not know where to go, so he wandered from shop to shop trying to figure out where he would find a place that would tell him where to go.

Walking past the post office, he got an idea. Harry turned around and went inside the post office. Going unnoticed behind the counter where the slots where the mail was sorted before being sent by owl, Harry looked up and down and finally came to a slot that read "GODRIC'S HOLLOW". His excitement soon faded when he realized that, "Ok, now what?"

He could not have waited more than three minutes when a postman walked right beside Harry without a glance, grabbed the letters inside and tied them around a large owl's leg. The owl was obviously old, for it slowly flew out the window. Harry decided that the only thing to do was to follow it.

It was a good thing the owl was slow, or else Harry would never have been able to follow it. They must have traveled twenty minutes before Harry past a sign that read, "GODRIC'S HOLLOW". He slowed to a walk to survey the line of houses, scattered across the countryside. The owl he had followed flew into a house with a sign above the door reading, "The Oswalds". Harry walked past, with urgency to his step, for he did not have much time left.

After several more minutes, Harry began to loose hope. He reached some woods and stopped next to a large tree. Looking desperately around, he did not see any house labeled "The Potters". With sadness growing in his heart, he was about to give up when he heard people laughing. Harry followed the laughter through the woods and found himself in front of a small, cozy looking home. It did not have a name above the door, but Harry walked toward the backyard where the laughter continued to come from.

"Harry! Harry, look at daddy!"

Harry jumped at the sound of his name and slowly walked into the backyard.

There was a tall man, with wild black hair, flying over and under the trees behind the house on a broomstick. A woman, with long red hair, was holding a baby. The baby had the same wild black hair as the man on the broomstick and was staring up at him.

Harry crept closer to them, and realized it. It was his parents. The baby was him.

Overcome with shock and emotion, Harry stood transfixed on the three people before him. His father took another loop around a tree and landed expertly beside his mother and himself.

"Here, James, hold Harry and I'll get a picture." His mother said. She dashed inside the house while Harry's father held him.

"You are going to be a great Quidditch player one day, Harry." He said to the baby. Baby Harry laughed and grabbed at his father's broom.

"Oh, perfect!" Shouted Harry's mother, and she snapped the picture. She put the camera down and walked over to Harry's father and her baby son. "We love you, Harry." She said, and kissed him.

"More than you know." His father said, and he looked at his wife with an almost sad smile.

Standing there, Harry wanted so much to run over and hug them. Before he could stop himself, he was walking closer. He broke into a run, and just as he was about to throw his arms around his parents, a blinding light flashed before his eyes.

Harry stopped dead and covered his face in his hands. A minute went by before the light faded, and Harry slowly removed his hands from his face.

He was no longer facing his parents. The backyard in which he was formally standing was gone. Harry was atop the Table of Time, the hands set to April 15th, 1998.

Slowly, he backed off the table and stood rooted to the spot where he landed. He was _so_ close to embracing his parents. Yet his time ran out. Even if he did reach them, they would never have noticed. It was a long time before Harry left the room containing the Table of Time. The storage room he stepped into was full of the shattered glass. He tiptoed over the destruction and shut the door.

Harry sighed and turned around.

"Ahh!" He yelped.

Professor Dumbledore was standing in front of him. His twinkling eyes were fixed on Harry.

"So, you found the Table of Time?" He asked, with a grin.

Harry froze where he stood. All he could do was stare at him.

"It's alright. It was only a matter of time until you found it. Just like your father." Dumbledore said. He motioned for Harry to move aside and opened the door.

"My f-father used the Table of Time?" Harry stuttered, shocked.

"Oh yes, he was just as curious as you are." Dumbledore said, surveying the floor covered in glass pieces. "Looks like Peeves was at it again, 'eh?"

"That's how I found it. I caught Peeves throwing the glass jars and I heard the clock and-" Harry explained, but the Professor stopped him.

"Quite similar to how your father came upon it. I moved the Table to the back storage room, thinking no one would find it there. But, your father, just like you, was curious." He stopped and noticed Harry looking at him with burning curiosity. "I assume, you want to know what time he choose to visit?"

"Well-" Harry began, but Dumbledore stopped him again.

"I caught him, much like I caught you. He stepped off the table to face me and began to explain everything before I could even say 'hello'. He wasn't sure what time he set the clock at, but explained that he found himself at the Quidditch field. Not knowing what happened, the thought he was missing a game. James then ran to get his broom, only to realize he could not grab it. It suddenly dawned on him that he had traveled in time. He walked back to the Quidditch field and found an empty place to watch the game. James continued to explain that he kept hearing his last name by the commentary. Confused, he looked hard at the players and he told me that he saw _himself_. Only, he continued to say, that he looked different. He saw himself chasing the Snitch, but he had a mark on his forehead. Also, he said he had green eyes.

Dumbledore stopped to let Harry take this information in.

"He saw _me_? My father traveled in the future and saw one of my Quidditch matches?" Harry asked, astounded.

"I believe so, yes." Professor Dumbledore said quietly. "However, I am not sure that he realized that. Perhaps he did, when you were born. For James was your age when he found the Table of Time. From further explanation, up until he was transported back, he said that this 'Potter' was just as good a flyer as he was. Maybe even better. For a fleeting moment, I saw pride in his eyes. Maybe he did know who he saw."

Harry looked at the ground. He saw his parents alive. His father saw him, while he was still alive. Perhaps he knew it, maybe not, but James Potter got to see his son too.

"Come now, Harry. I believe it's time for dinner. I'm sure Ron and Hermione will want to know every detail of your experience." Professor Dumbledore said, and he led Harry out of the room.

Harry looked back as they walked out into the hall. _I'm glad that wizard was bored, a long time ago._ He thought, and he went to join his friends.

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Author's Note: Now that I look back on this, it really wasn't all that bad. I'm glad that I finally have gotten it up for you to enjoy. The poem I wrote for this story, _The Table of Time Rhyme_, was read aloud to my creative writing class at my community college. It got quite a feedback, and it's great to have it out again for others to read.

For the readers of _Beyond the Emerald Green_, chapter 9 shall be posted by Thursday (7/26/01). Those of you patiently waiting for the continuance of _Shadows of Yesterday_, once the epilogue for BtEG has been completed, work on that story will then commence once again.

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Orca on the Web: Updated frequently, there's a lot to see and do at Orca's site. Keep up to date with my stories, download desktops with some characters from some of my most read stories, and learn how to earn awards. Bookmark it at [http://www.theworldofreneepotter.disneyfansites.com][1]

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"Time will not slow down when something unpleasant lies ahead." –from _The Goblet of Fire_

~OrcaPotter

[OrcaMorph@aol.com][2]

   [1]: http://www.theworldofreneepotter.disneyfansites.com/
   [2]: mailto:OrcaMorph@aol.com



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